Portable clothes steamer



Dec. 23, 1969 B. FRANK PORTABLE CLOTHES STEAMER Filed Feb. 27, 1968 FIGZFIG!

INVENTOR BERNARD FRAN K ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,485,065 PORTABLECLOTHES STEAMER Bernard Frank, Shamokin, Pa., assignor t0 FranzusIndustries, Inc., Shamokin, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania FiledFeb. 27, 1968, Ser. No. 708,657 Int. Cl. D06c 1/00 US. Cl. 68--222 4Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A housing construction is provided fora portable appliance that steams clothes to remove wrinkles. The housingcomprises an uprightly disposed cylindrical type hollow watertightmember with an electrically heated Water chamber inside and which hasupper and lower interfitting sections. A steam head is provided fortreating a garment and a bafiie network between is disposed in a steamconveyance path between the head and the water chamber to preventspilling of water when the member is tilted and to prevent sputtering ofsteam flow by condensation of water.

This invention relates to a portable garment steamer, and morespecifically, it relates to structure for conveying steam from a heatedwater chamber to a steam head so that it may be used in steaming clothessuch as described in my copending application Ser. No. 692,828 forFabric Treatment Means And Methods, which is incorporated herein as areference to the state of the prior art.

In a portable garment steamer which is manually operated and isfashioned for storage in a suitcase, problems are presented in making awatertight structure that will nevertheless generate and direct steam toa garment. If valves or shutters are used to retain water inside asteamer and to permit steam to escape, the device becomes expensive andperhaps dangerous if steam is generated and shutters or valves are notopened. Portable steamers are designed to stand in a position such thatwater is directed by gravity toward an internal electrical heaterelement. In operation, however, as the steamer is handled, it is tiltedand tipped or even held in an upside down position momentarily. Also, itmay be tipped over from its stand position, and in storage in a suitcasemay be left for long periods in almost any position. It is desirable notto have to remove water from the device between use, and even ifattempted, some drops remain that could leak.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a simpleinexpensive garment steamer.

It is another object of the invention to provide a garment steamerwithout any moving parts.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a garment steamerthat is leakproof and which may be stored in any position with waterinside.

These and other objectives and features of the invention will berecognized in the following description of a preferred embodiment of theinvention, which makes reference to the accompanying drawings, whereinFIGURE 1 is an elevation view of a garment steamer constructed inaccordance with the invention, and

FIGURE 2 is a top view, partly in section, of a baflle elementarrangement provided in accordance with this invention.

By reference to the drawings, it is seen that the portable garmentsteamer rests upon a stand 5 to hold its substantially cylindrical,hollow body 6 vertically disposed with an apertured steam head 7 at thetop to permit steam 8 to escape. Basically, the body 6 iswatertight-with a lower water chamber 9 having an electrical heaterassem- 3,485,065 Patented Dec. 23, 1969 bly 10 therein for heating thewater 11. Preferably, the body is of plastic or has some insulatingholding portion if of metal, since the steamer is hand held and thisinsulates the hand from the heated water and steam. The body is dividedinto upper 12 and lower section 9 which are coupled at an intermediateposition 14 by means of an interfitting coupling arrangement 15. Thiscoupler can be either a threaded coupler or a bayonet type removablecoupling which produces a generally watertight seal at the coupling.

The upper member 12 serves as a steam conveyance means between the lowerwater chamber member 9 and the steam head 7. Within this member 12 isdisposed an array of baffles 20 with aperture or slot sections 21disposed in such a manner that escaping steam must take a zig-zag path22 out of the water chamber.

In this configuration, the top section 12 may be removed at the coupling15 and the battle array is afiixed inside the top section by means ofrod 25 and rivet or screw 26 to extend coaxially within the confines ofthe top section 12. As may be seen from the top view of FIGURE 2, therod-baflle assembly is made of a plastic material with the semi-circularwafer-like baffles 20 disposed at an angle from the vertical body axisto provide at their lowermost extremities the slot-aperture portion 21through which the steam escapes. The baffles 20 may be of a semi-rigidplastic at least. about the edges of the discs disposed on rod 25 tocomprise flexible diaphragm-like contact at the engaging surfaces 30with the interior surface of the upper section 12 when the rod-discassembly is inserted into the top section 12, thereby providing inessence a Watertight seal except at the aperture portions 21.

Preferably, the angle a from the vertical axis 31 at which the bafiiesare disposed is chosen to produces several desirable features. Any waterdroplets or condensation are directed by gravity back into the waterchamber 9 by these baffles 20 through the reverse zig-zag path of that22 taken in exit of the steam. This prevents any sputtering or wettingof the garment by means of water escaping with the steam 8. Also, thenumber of battles may be chosen to produce the desired valvelessleakproof feature of this construction. It may be seen that the amountof water 11 is limited to a height of 14 beyond which it may not befilled when upper member 12 is removed. This is the amount that may beefficiently heated to steam and which resides below the first escapeaperture 21A when the Water is heated in the stand position.

To illustrate the leakproof feature, assume that the steamer tipped onits side. The water might escape into the first compartment 40 throughaperture 21A but would remain trapped there. Slots 21, 21A may bestaggered as shown in FIGURE 2 if desired, to assure that water does notreach the head 7 in any rotary position when the body 6 is lying on itsside. When returned to upright position, the water will return to thewater chamber 9.

Even should the steamer be held temporarily in upside down positionduring use or in storage, the sloping bafiies will constitute a seriesof cups designed with a capacity to hold the water capacity of waterchamber 9 without reaching or spilling out of the apertures 45 in head7. Even should some of the water reach the head 7, its angulardisposition provides much the same action as the baffies, and thecentrally disposed escape apertures 45 are surrounded by internallyfacing bosses or ridges so that a significant water level must beintroduced to permit leakage.

Thus, it is seen that the novel structure afforded by this inventionprovides a simple, inexpensive, leakproof garment steamer having nomoving parts or valves. Therefore, the features of novelty believeddescriptive of the nature and spirit of the advance in the art providedby this invention are defined with particularity in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A portable garment steamer comprising in combination, a waterchamber, heating means disposed in said water chamber, an aperturedsteam head for treating a garment with escaping steam, conveyance meansdisposed between said chamber and said head comprising a hollowWatertight housing coupling said chamber and said head having aremovable connection dividing the steamer into two interfitting sectionsone of which comprises said water chamber, and a set of apertured bafiles within said conveyance means directing steam escaping from the waterchamber through the apertures in a zigzag path to said head.

2. A steamer as defined in claim 1, wherein the conveyance means andWater stand together comprise substantially a hollow cylinder with astand at the bottom end for resting the cylinder in an upright verticalposition with the water chamber at the bottom, wherein the baflles aredis- ,posed at an angle from the vertical axis of the cylinder with theapertures at the. lowest extremity to cause any water dropletscondensing in the conveyance means to run back into the water chamber ina zig-zag path by force of gravity.

3. A steamer as defined in claim 1, wherein the bafiles are located on amember aflixed to the conveyance means.

4. A steamer as defined in claim 1, wherein said baffles are mountedintegrally within said conveyance means section, extending outside thewater chamber.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,172,9l7 9/1938 Voigt 682223,272,964 9/1966 Carlos et a1. 219271 3,395,469 8/1968 Gilbert 3869WILLIAM I. PRICE, Primary Examiner

